A comprehensive list of 100+ useful and engaging "Parentech" tools.  We are working hard to bring more to your attention every day.

Two former colleagues of mine (Ricardo and Megan) recently started a company that is focused on building engaging apps that benefit children.    Their app, Enzo and Friends, is showcased as one of our tools under Story Times...see knackmaster.com.  Ricardo gave this wonderful presentation at the recent MoDev Tablet.  

"Consider that one fourth of the world are children. By children, I mean any person 12 or under. We are talking about 1.6 billion people worldwide or 83 million children in the United States accordingly to the US Census, International Data Base. This is the first generation using smart devices and apps as part of their everyday live. As any new technology, mobile apps are still a long way to go to provide children great benefits. Many companies like KnackMaster are experimenting and learning new ways to engage children. A great deal of research needs to be done to design and build experiences that are beneficial for education, entertainment, and everyday use."  For full presentation click here...

Among the most important questions in the upcoming election is, “How can we improve the nation’s public schools?” — 83 percent indicated that improving schools is “very important” or “extremely important.”http://blog.ted.com/2012/10/09/10-talks-on-making-schools-great/

"Most teachers are happy doing their job — helping kids understand and make sense of the world around them. But there’s a growing number of educators who are wading into entrepreneurship, frustrated at the lack of tools they need, and wanting to extend their sphere of influence. As technology becomes more widely used and accepted in the classroom, teachers are taking their ideas about how to improve learning environments, sharing them online, and creating web-based tools to benefit teachers and students." Read more here: http://newsle.com/article/0/37413359/

Check out http://classbadges.com/.  ClassBadges is a free, online tool where teachers can award badges for student accomplishments. Through your teacher account, you can award badges customized for your classroom or school.

It has been a vision of mine to create an education program that inspires rather than indoctrinates.  I am not an educator by profession but am a life long student.  In my opinion, education should inspire all of us to create something new, to drive change through innovation, to disrupt the status quo...  Innovation could manifest itself in many ways...it could result in making available new physical things or could be inspiring innovative thoughts.  One thing I know for sure is that education should not be a philosophy, a blind doctrine following, or a lecture...where one (usually teacher) knows all and we mindlessly follow. 

Just recently, a friend of mine posted a story from one of my favorite childhood writer, Branko Copic.  Basta Sljezove Boje by Branko Copic is a story about a grandfather, a boy, and a teacher.  At one point in this short story, a teacher asks the class about the color of a wolf's fur.  A boy raises a hand and answers that a wolf's fur is green.   Instead of questioning further the reason behind this answer, the teacher from this story starts bullying the boy and calls him "inadequate" for stating that the wolf's fur is green color when everyone knows the right answer is gray.

In this day and age, I am wondering if schools are here to simply help us learn (simple tasks, arithmetic, reading, etc...) and it is up to us to reach out to the world and get educated.  That is how I did it and continue doing every day.  Coming from the world where education did not allow for critical thinking but doctrine following, I have never felt a greater freedom than the time when I was able to argue my point even if that point was that the "wolf's fur color is green."

When I was young, one had to travel the world to be exposed to different opinions.  One had to read books, frequent the libraries, venture the world to be exposed to other thoughts.  Today, all of this is available online,on our mobile devices and at our fingerprints.  To quote an individual that has been inspiration for me over the last couple of years
"The ability to reach millions of students with a single course is the 
most disruptive force in education since Gutenberg's printing press" 
-- Steve Blank

This is why, I love the concept of digital education.  It is the world where each one of us are provided with materials and each one of us could interpret it in our own ways and many different ways.  Imagine the possibilities as we look at the problems through our own prism of light. Innovation is inevitable as long as we have passion about it.  There is no right or wrong way of going about it (as long as it is within legal and ethical standards.)  The vision is your vision, the plan is your plan...if you love it they will love it.

As I write this blog, I am embarking on two very different, yet prestigious, educational programs.   Also, I am bringing to life a small website and exposing it to children ages 5 to 12 to start engaging in the fun of learning.